Double Life
by Danja
Summary: AU. Dr. Annika Hansen's past comes back to haunt her. Post-"Endgame". R&R. FINAL CHAPTER UP!
1. Arizona

**Double Life**

* * *

Doctor Annika Hansen, Ph.D., drew a series of equations on the whiteboard in red erasable marker.

She stood with her back to her students, who sat at their tables in the auditorium behind her. It was the Tuesday morning graduate class in Applied Borg Technologies at Burwell College in Prescott, Arizona.

Today, she wore a Navy blue jacket, a green blouse, black slacks, and sensible black leather walking shoes.

* * *

Her students and the rest of the faculty knew that she was a former Borg drone.

She told them nothing about … _Seven of Nine_.

* * *

For the first few years years after she left Voyager, she worked as a mercenary. The money was great, but the job was tedious (prop up this dictator, protect that narcoterrorist, what-have-you).

After that, she worked as a consultant to the Federation, specializing in the Borg.

* * *

Somewhere in between, she bought a house in the Arizona desert. She loved it there - no neighbors, no judgment. It was a place where she could fully be herself.

* * *

The Master's Degree came easily enough for her. (She found a combined Bachelor's/Master's program in engineering online. She managed to translate her ... _work experience_ .. into extra credit hours.)

Annika had found the process of writing her Master's thesis … and then her Doctoral dissertation … _therapeutic_. It was a chance to put onto paper everything about Borg technology that she had been carrying around in her head for the previous twenty years.

For her, it was a release – an exorcism.

* * *

"The Omega particle wave function ..." said Annika as she wrote the equation on the whiteboard. " ... Is directly related to the speed of light coefficient expressed by the ..."

Annika grimaced and bared her teeth as a painful twinge shot up from her calf. _ Not_ NOW, she thought.

"Doctor Hansen, are you all right?" one of her students asked from the audience.

Annika glanced towards the crowd. She let out a breath and said, "I'm fine, Mr. Woods." _War wound_, she thought. She then added, "As I was saying ..."

* * *

Teaching, to Annika, was a act of rebellion - a way of striking back against the Borg. She felt good teaching young people that which was once regarded as a Dark Art.


	2. Sigil

**Chapter Two**

* * *

Icheb was now thirty-five and a Lieutenant Commander in the Starfleet Reserve. He was a PhD student at Burwell and one of Annika's graduate assistants.

Annika had sought him out. After having previously worked with him on Voyager, she knew that she could trust him with her … _secrets _

The biggest secret of all being Seven of Nine.

* * *

Annika's offer to come to Arizona and work with her was most seductive (Her exact words to Icheb were, "How would you like to be Doctor Icheb?")

* * *

Early the next morning, Tyler Woolfolk – another one of Annika's graduate assistants – was leaving his house for his work at the lab that day.

A pickup truck stopped in front of Tyler's house. Three men carrying shotguns and wearing pantyhose over their faces were riding in the bed of the truck.

One of the men jumped out, shot Tyler dead in his driveway, and then jumped back into the truck. Another of the men jumped out of the pickup truck carrying a can of black spray paint. The man spray-painted the sigil _7/9_ on Tyler's driveway.

The masked man with the spray paint jumped back into the truck and the truck sped away.


	3. The Innocent

**Chapter Three**

* * *

"What are you going to do?" Icheb asked. He and Annika were in Annika's lab at Burwell College later that morning.

"There isn't a whole lot that I _CAN_ do," Annika replied. "I'm not a police officer."

Tyler's violent death sickened Annika. _He was a complete and total innocent,_ she thought. _He did nothing to deserve_ ANY _of this_.

"You trust the police?"

"Not especially," Annika replied as she cut off a sample of Borg armor and placed it in a Petri dish for testing.

"Why?"

"How many police officers have lost family members to the Borg?" Annika asked. "How many police officers are enamored of Admiral Picard's exploits fighting the Borg? How many police officers used to be in Starfleet and have themselves fought the Borg in the past?

"I question law enforcement's capacity to remain objective about all of this," Annika concluded.

"That sign they found on Tyler's driveway," said Icheb. "Someone's calling you out."

"Who wants me that badly?" Annika asked. _Who's powerful enough to order such a thing? _she thought. She then asked Icheb, "Are you able to get out of the city for a while?"

"I have some friends back in Hawaii, where I was previously stationed," Icheb replied. "Why do you ask?"

"Whoever killed Tyler ... we don't know how much they know about us ... or _YOU_," Annika replied. "It may just come to that."

* * *

Annika drove around town later that afternoon. The mysterious sigil that was spray-painted on Tyler's driveway – _7/9_ – kept appearing as graffiti all over town.

* * *

"Zooey? This is Seven. I was wondering if you could tell me who ordered Tyler Woolfolk's death." Seven was at home, on the phone with Zooey Carmichael – a friend from her days as a mercenary who had contacts with the underworld.

"Why do you want to know?" Zooey asked on the other end of the line.

"He was a friend … "

"You _KNEW_ him?" Zooey asked.

"He … did some work for me," Seven replied, being deliberately vague.

"Sorry to hear that," said Zooey.

"Yeah ..."

"So … what makes you think his death was a hit?" Zooey asked.

"I just can't get over that sigil that was spray-painted on the driveway," Seven replied. "He was a complete and total innocent.

"Someone hit HIM … to get to _ME,_" Seven concluded. "I've made a _LOT_ of enemies over the course of my career."

"We _ALL_ have," said Zooey. He then added, "I've got some contacts inside the police. I'll call them and let you know if I've found anything."

"Thanks," said Seven. "I appreciate that."


	4. Out of the Shadows

**Chapter Four**

_Say hello to the night  
__Lost in the Shadows_

_\- Lou Gramm, "Lost in the Shadows" -_

* * *

_2345 Hours_

Tony Lockwood sat at the bar at Jerry's Bar, knocking back a double of Jack Daniel's. He was thin, in his late forties, and had a brown mustache and greasy brown hair.

Jerry's Bar was a dusty dive bar located on a dead end road just off of Highway 209 near Prescott. The walls were yellowed with cigarette smoke. The ancient hardwood floor was chewed up with scuff marks made by decades of boot heels walking to and fro across the floor.

An ancient jukebox in the corner played 24th century country-western music.

* * *

_2030 Hours_

_"I have something for you," said Zooey on the other end of the line. "I talked to my sources. The truck used in the murder is registered to a Tony Lockwood."_

_"I'm assuming he's the driver," said Seven._

_"Probably a safe assumption," said Zooey._

_"Which makes him an accomplice to Tyler's murder … "_

_"He drove the getaway truck … so that's about right," said Zooey._

_"What else do you have?" Seven asked._

_"He belongs to a group called the Anti-Borg League," said Zooey. "It's just what it sounds like … they have issues with the Borg._

_"Funny thing ... the group didn't exist until a few months ago. They started out by hanging around their clubhouse on Route Five drinking beer."_

_"How does a group go from nothing to having a clubhouse in a few months?" Seven asked, confused. "And how do they go from drinking beer to cold-blooded murder?"_

_"Good questions, all," Zooey replied. "Someone must be funneling these people some _SERIOUS_ Latinum."_

_"Someone who wants me dead," said Seven mournfully. "And who's willing to kill an innocent person to make it happen."_

* * *

_0145 Hours_

A buzzed Tony staggered in through the door of his darkened bedroom. His room was a mess with dirty clothes and empty beer bottles lying around everywhere on the floor.

Tony sat down on the edge of his bed and began taking off his boots.

"Hello, Tony," said Seven.

Tony snapped his head and glanced around the room, trying to find the source of the voice. Seven stepped out of the shadows wearing a black hoodie with a black neck gaiter face mask, black tactical pants, and black boots.

"Who are you? How the Hell did you get in here?" Tony barked.

"You don't know?" Seven asked. "Strange considering that my name is being spray-painted all over town."

Tony opened the drawer of his nightstand and dug around inside.

"Looking for this?" Seven asked as she pulled a phaser pistol out of the left pocket of her hoodie. "I know the people of Arizona well enough to know their fetish for guns."

Tony dug around his bedside gun rack, searching for his mini phaser.

"I got that one, too," said Seven as she pulled a mini phaser out of the right pocket of her hoodie. She then added, "That's the problem with you people. You think everyone around you is stupid."

_Or rather, as dumb as _YOU_ are,_ Seven thought wryly.

With a quick flick of her wrists, she now had both phasers trained on Tony.

"What do you want?" Tony asked drunkenly.

"You're going to tell me _EVERYTHING_," said Seven. "Everything I wish to know."

"Like Hell I will!" Tony growled.

Seven engaged her HypnoBlast weapon. _Sleep,_ she cooed telepathically to Tony.

Tony's eyes bulged in terror as he found himself unable to move his legs. "What's going on?" he cried, panicked. "I can't move my legs!"

_Sleep, Tony,_ Seven commanded telepathically. _Your legs are now deeply relaxed ... so relaxed you're unable to move them._

Tony struggled to stand up, straining to lift himself up off the bed.

_Sleep now,_ Seven commanded telepathically. _You are now in a deep sleep._

Exhausted from the struggle, Tony fell forwards, his head resting on his knees. Seven quickly dropped the guns on the floor and pushed his head and torso back onto the bed. She then grabbed his legs and swung them around onto the bed.

Tony now lay flat on the bed, deeply hypnotized.

Seven turned off HypnoBlast and said, "You're now in a very special sleep. You will now answer any question I ask you clearly and distinctly. You will obey any command that I give you."

_Just my luck, I get stuck with a slob, _Seven thought acidly as she kicked empty beer bottles out of the way.

"Who's your leader?" Seven asked. _You and your crew couldn't organize ants at a picnic,_ she thought. _Who's_ REALLY _in charge?_

"Some alien," Tony gurgled. "Someone named Kes."

Seven sat down on the side of the bed. KES? _HER? _she thought. "Spell this person's name ..."

"Dunno," Tony mumbled.

"What does this person they look like?"

"Never seen them."

"How do they communicate with you?"

"Voice ... inside my head."

"Do you mean telepathically?"

"Yes ..."

"Did this 'Kes' order you to kill Tyler Woolfolk?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"It wants Seven of Nine."

"Where is this alien?"

"Planet ... Zadon," Tony sputtered.

Seven passed her hand over Tony's face and commanded, "Sleep now." She then added, "You are now in a deep sleep. All memory of me and of our time spent together has now been erased from your mind."

Tony lay on the bed, deeply asleep. Seven got up and walked back into the shadows.


	5. Another Day At The Office

**Chapter Five**

* * *

Seven sat on the sofa in her living room, steepling her fingers and lost in thought.

_Assuming this _IS _Kes the Ocampan, what could I have possibly done to offend her? _Seven wondered. _Offend her to the point of her ordering someone killed?_

_How do I fight a demigod?_

Seven got up, walked over to the bookcase, and partially pulled out a book entitled _The Raven. _The bookcase next to it slid away to one side, revealing the six-foot-tall door of a safe behind it.

Seven entered the combination on the keypad, opened the door, and walked inside.

Inside, the safe contained a collection of weapons of every sort – rifles, shotguns, pistols, a grenade launcher, etc. All were holdovers from Seven's days as a mercenary.

Seven selected a phaser rifle, a phaser pistol, and a holster from the group.

* * *

Once outside the safe, Seven removed the battery packs from the pistol and the rifle. A wireless charger was lying on the table before her.

Seven put the battery packs on the charger. As she was putting the packs on the charger, her holographic dog – a pug she named Chuckles – wandered over and nuzzled her leg.

"Hey, Chuckles," she cooed, rubbing his neck underneath his snout.

* * *

The SUV drove down the dusty desert road towards the ancient, eroded volcano (she'd already told Icheb to teach her classes for the next several days, masking this excursion under the guise of a "business trip").

Seven was behind the wheel, wearing a pair of small Trinity-style sunglasses, a black long sleeve shirt, black tactical pants, and black boots.

* * *

The SUV pulled up inside the core of the volcano. The magma had long since eroded away, leaving a (deceptively) empty chamber.

With a few taps of the SUV's touchscreen console, the landing lights came up. A small, squat, white and navy blue spaceship that was slightly larger than Seven's SUV decloaked and revealed itself (Seven had won it in a game of Fetzen Gal on the Planet Balexan Prime).

_Served the guy right for making a bet while he was drunk, _Seven thought as she smiled at the memory.

Seven got out of the SUV and put on a brown leather jacket that was lying on the passenger seat next to her. She then opened the back door and took out a long plastic case that contained her rifle. She then belted her holster with her pistol around her waist.

With another touch of her SUV's touchscreen console, she opened the door to the ship. She reached in, tapped the ship's touchscreen console, and opened the storage compartment just behind the door. She put her rifle case inside the storage compartment and shut the door.

Seven entered the crew area of the ship, sat down in the Captain's Chair, and closed the door. She buckled her five-point safety harness and called up the holographic command system. With a few taps on the heads-up display, the thrusters roared to life and the ship rose up and out of the volcano.


	6. Showdown

**Chapter Six**

* * *

_Seven of Nine – Personal Log_

_I have no idea what I'm doing. All I know is that she – I'm assuming she's the same Kes from Voyager – is based on Planet Zadon._

_I don't know where to begin looking for her._

_All I know is that Kes - or whoever is calling themselves "Kes" - wants me. They'll do whatever it takes - up to and including shedding innocent blood - to have me._

* * *

Seven's tiny ship made its way through the Borg transwarp conduit (Seven had long since modified the ship's shields to allow the ship to withstand the forces involved in travelling through the conduit).

A journey that would've taken two days via regular means was cut down to a few hours via the transwarp conduit.

Seven's ship emerged from the conduit. Two hours later, she was outside Planet Zadon.

_I'm here, Kes. Where are you? _ Seven asked mentally.

All at once, the ship was bathed in a flash of light …

* * *

The flash of light cleared. Seven suddenly found herself – and her ship – on the ground.

Seven touched a holographic button and ran a quick systems check. _All Systems Normal._

_She's nothing if not merciful, _Seven thought. _Unless I'm to be the main course in whatever she has in store for me._

Seven opened the door and stepped out. She opened the storage compartment behind the helm compartment, opened the rifle case, removed her rifle, and closed the storage compartment and the door to the ship.

The ship had landed in a hard, desolate desert. The ruins of an ancient temple lay just behind the ship.

"_KES!_" Seven cried out. "Show yourself!"

_Come to me,_ Kes replied telepathically. As Seven suspected, she was the same Kes from Voyager.

"Where are you?" Seven shouted as she wielded the rifle. "I'm not here to play games."

A flash of light appeared in the temple. The flash resolved itself into the figure of Kes, who was sitting in a lotus position.

Seven raced into the temple brandishing the rifle. She came to a stop in front of Kes. Kes was wearing a long purple robe trimmed in gold.

"Seven of Nine," Kes said to Seven, acknowledging Seven's presence.

"Why?" Seven asked Kes.

"Why _WHAT?_" Kes replied.

"Why order the death of Tyler Woolfolk?

"Why does it concern you?" Kes asked. "His death was of no consequence."

Seven's blood suddenly ran cold. "I might've expected that answer coming from the Borg," she said.

"He was a friend and a colleague. He was my assistant," Seven continued. "His death _WAS_ of consequence."

"What about the Ocampans you assimilated ... _MY_ people?" Kes shouted.

_Now, we're getting somewhere_, Seven thought. "I was not there," said Seven. "Ocampa was assimilated a hundred years before I was born."

"You act as if you're never seen innocent blood being shed before," Kes shot back. "Time was, you made a career of it."

"I was a soldier following orders," said Seven.

"And that makes it all right?"

"You would've done the same thing had you been in my position," said Seven.

"You gonna shoot me?" Kes asked.

"Go back to Ocampa," Seven commanded. "Stay away from Earth."

With that, Kes disappeared. Seven turned and walked back towards the ship.


	7. A New Day

**Chapter Seven**

* * *

_Seven of Nine - Personal Log_

_Kes truly _HAS_ gone mad._

_I never wanted to kill her. (How _DOES _one kill a demigod?) Had she so wished, she could've very easily crushed my ship with _ME_ in it._

_I've done this for too many years. I'm tired of the blood, tired of killing._

_Besides, killing her wouldn't have brought Tyler Woolfolk back._

_The police arrested Tony Lockwood, who then fingered the other four men in the truck with him – including the shooter, Tyler's killer._

_Prescott's Anti-Borg League isn't going to be doing much of anything for a while._

* * *

Seven drove around Prescott, seeing the grafitti.

Seeing _THAT_ sigil – _7/9_.

Now that the people who had murdered Tyler had been arrested and were in jail awaiting trial (to say nothing of Kes being banished from Earth), the energy in the city appeared to have shifted.

What had been once a primitive scrawl spray-painted around town was now being embellished – embellished with words such as "Champion" and "Protector".

Somehow, the streets _KNEW_ – they knew that a cancer had been excised from their midst.

Seven blushed. _I'm no superhero, _she thought. _I'm no protector. It's all I can do to protect myself._

THE END


End file.
